Задание 1. Прочитайте текст.

Wal-Mart already manoeuvring to bring its vision of retailing to the European consumer. In the United States the company operates stores that are often twice as big their European equivalents and which sell a huge ¹selection ____ of quality products at a ² significant price reduction____. However, duplicating its success on the old continent may prove to be just as diggicult as conquering the New World’s markets. Firstly, Europe with its limited space available for building new stores and its high ³ operating costs ____ may make it more difficult for the company to produce the same ⁴positive financial results____that  it has had in the US. In addition to that, it may be difficult to persuade ⁵ companies that provide goods for retailers____to do business with them in the same way as they did in the US. But with its purchase of the British supermarket chain ASDA, Wal-Mart clearly wants to establish a ⁶ particular market____for itself in Europe.

 

Задание 2.Определите, являются ли утверждения:

а) ложными

b) истинными

 

1. Wal-Mart is the smallest retailer in Europe. А
2. Europe will make it more difficult for the company to produce the same positive financial results that it has had in the US. B
3. The suppliers will be persuaded easily to do business in the same way as their colleagues did in the US. A
4. Wal-Mart bought the Spanish supermarket chain El CORTE INGLÉS. B
5. Wal-Mart wants to make a particular market for itself in Europe. A

Задание 3. Сформулируйте главную мысль текста. Дайте название тексту.

Retailing.

Duplicating its success on the old continent may prove to be just as difficult as conquering the New World’s markets.

Задание 4. Замените выделенные курсивом слова и словосочетания следующими словами.

a   profits                       d   range

b   overhead                  e   suppliers

c   niche                         f   discount

 

selection  D

significant price reduction F

operating costs  B

positive financial results A

companies that provide goods for retailers E

particular market C

 

Задание 5. Соедините слова в словосочетания. Составьте с ними предложения.

price                reduction

operating         costs

particular         market

financial              results

supermarket       chain

old                      continent

The promotion included free snacks and T-shirts, lucky draw tickets, free beers and substantial price reductions.

Significant savings occurred in documents production, travel and in operating costs.

In particular, opening this particular market to foreign firms would most likely help set higher standards of performance and quality for everyone.

Producers in emerging regions post promising financial results; European and Canadian producers impacted by market forces.

So there is much at stake for the old continent.

Some of these products were marketed through a large supermarket chain in Colombia.

Задание 6. Прочитайте заглавие текста и спрогнозируйте его содержание. Прочитайте текст, найдите подтверждение или опровержение вашему предположению.

 

RICHERPICKINGS

ByNigelCope

1Who is the busiest retailer in Britain? Marks and Spencer? Sainsbury perhaps, or Tesco? Wrong on all three counts. The answer is Richer Sounds, a little-known, privately-owned, cut-price retailer of hi-fi equipment with 28 shops in the UK.

2In the Guinness Book of Records, Richer Sounds warrants an entry for the highest sales per square foot of any retailer in the UK — £17,000 — for its store on London Bridge Walk in the City Even taking an average across all 28 stores. Richer Sounds still clocks up £5,780 per square foot, ten times more than Marks and Spencer, six times the sales achieved by Sainsbury.

3It is profitable too. Sales are up and its operating margin has soared from 3.4 per cent in 1989 to almost thirteen per cent today Last year Richer Sounds made profits of more than £3m on sales of almost £48 m.

4The man behind Richer Sounds’ success is founder, managing director and 98 per cent shareholder Julian Richer, a 39-year- old Londoner who, at the age of 14, used to buy and sell candles during the energy crisis of 1974. A likeable bloke who wears his blond hair in a ponytail and operates from a small converted Victorian vinegar factory in Bermondsey, south-east London, he raps out his sales pitch (what salespeople say to persuade you to buy sth).

5″Even when I was at school I wanted to go into business,» he says, «but my age was against me. Property was out – I wasn’t old enough to sign a contract. Cars were out — I couldn’t drive. So I turned to hi-fi, which was catching on at school. I bought a second-hand Bang and Olufsen for £10, did it up (to repair sth) and sold it for £22.» In 1979, at the age of 19, he opened his first shop — the one on London Bridge Walk.

6Since then little has changed. In simple terms, Richer Sounds sells discounted hi-fi from tiny basic shops with low overheads. Stock turnover is rapid and the company’s smallness gives it flexibility to take advantage of deals offered by manufacturers on end-of-line or surplus equipment.

7The technique has enabled Richer Sounds to secure itself a lucrative niche in a £4 bn audiovisual market dominated by independents.

9Suppliers are keen to do business with this quirky (unusual) retailer.

12Good service is another priority. At Richer Sounds staff are trained not to be pushy (rude, bold). They all attend two training seminars a year at Richer’s country house in Yorkshire, where more attention is paid to following the correct administrative procedures.

13First-time hi-fi buyers get a call to check that they have plugged in the equipment correctly. Customer receipts include a free phone number they can dial if they have a problem. Richer’s own name and office number are supplied too.

14The emphasis is on fun. If it’s raining, customers are given a free umbrella. Other seasonal gifts include mince pies at Christmas and hot-cross buns at Easter. «We have a laugh,» Richer says. «We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we do take our customers seriously.»

 

Задание 7. Определите, являются ли утверждения:

а) ложными

b) истинными

 

 

1. Richer Sounds, a little-known, privately-owned, cut-price retailer of hi-fi equipment in the US. A
2. The owner of Richer Sounds is Julian Richer, a 39-year- old Londoner. B
3. Julian Richer at the age of 14 used to buy and sell candles during the energy crisis of 1974.  B
4. Julian Richer opened his first shop when he was 30. A
5. Suppliers like to do business with this unusual retailer. B

Задание 8. Сформулируйте главную мысль текста. Дайте свое название тексту.

Richer Sounds’ success.

It is very important to have a goal.

Задание 9.Выберите один вариант ответа. Заполните пропуски.

1 Richer Sounds is ____

1. a) a single outlet retailer.
2. b) privately-owned retail chain.
3. c) a department store.

2 Richer Sounds ____

a)sells ten times more than Marks and Spencer.

b)has more outlets than most UK retailers.

1. c) sells more per square foot than any other UK retailer.

3 Richer Sounds is cheaper than other hi-fi retailers because_____

a)it only sells old models of hi-fi equipment.

1. b) it buys equipment from manufacturers at special prices.
2. c) it sells second-hand equipment.

4 At Richer Sounds, staff______

1. a) regularly receive further training.
2. b) do not have to follow rules.
3. c) install equipment for their customers.

 

Задание 10. Объясните выделенные в тексте слова и словосочетания. Составьте с ними предложения.

A retailer is a person or business that sells goods to the public.

Operating margin measures how much profit a company makes on a dollar of sales after paying for variable costs of production, such as wages and raw materials, but before paying interest or tax.

When a business has low overhead, that means the costs of running the business are relatively low. Office space, utilities, travel expenses, and equipment are all examples of overhead costs.

Stock turnover is the rate at which a company’s goods are sold and replaced.

Supplier is a person or organization that provides something needed such as a product or service.

A customer receipt records money against a customer account and can be used to update a bank account or pay off invoices.

Oxfam is the largest retailer of second-hand books in Europe, selling around 12 million per year.

In early September, the accumulation of the operating margin was achieved in time to allow for a switching to full self-financing.

They usually maintain low overhead by drawing on volunteer labour and donated facilities.

An inventory classification process had been initiated to keep track of stock turnover.

Purchaser or Supplier are solely responsible for any consequences that may occur as a result of transferring the WMZ-Certificate to third parties.

A customer receipt records money against a customer account and can be used to update a bank account or pay off invoices.

 

 

Задание 11. Прочитайте заглавие текста и спрогнозируйте его содержание. Прочитайте текст, найдите подтверждение или опровержение вашему предположению.

 

One day in my life

1Three years ago, Vanessa Stein and her husband Tom took up the fast food challenge: they bought the franchise for a 2McDonald’s restaurant near Leads.

3Early morning is always an effort for me. The alarm goes off at 6.30 a.m. and then I have 20 minutes “thinking time” to make some mental lists before I get up. I live by lists, actually – it’s the best way to keep things organised.

6Recently I’ve been arriving at our McDonald’s restaurant around 8.30 a.m. I’ve mastered the computerised accounts now so I’m training one of our floor managers to help me with the administration. Eventually this should give me more time to get involved in other areas of the business such as interviewing staff.

10Our restaurant is a retail park around five miles outside Leeds. Since we bought the franchise in 1995, we’ve already expended the seating and now we’re looking to expand the restaurant itself. We have to comfort to the McDonald’s standards 10(quality, service, cleanliness and value) of course, but the restaurant is actually our own business. We directly employ some 75 staff, order and pay for supplies (from “preferred suppliers”), take care of any maintenance or refurbishment, arrange local 12marketing, and so on. Around a quarter of all McDonald’s 800 UK restaurants are franchised.

17Buying this franchise was a big move for us. Tom (my husband) had to do nine month’s training before we could even be considered for a franchise. It paid off though, and we are delighted with this place – it boasts what was the first Drive-Thru 15in Yorkshire! – and the surrounding countryside is truly beautiful.

21By 9.30 a.m. I’m ready for a Bacon & Egg McMuffin and a cup of tea. I’ll have a quick chat with our regular breakfast 17customers before opening the post. This brings invoices from suppliers, marketing and training information from McDonald’s (they run the training courses but we pay for our staff to attend), booking for parties, or perhaps the monthly report from the “Mystery Diner”.

25Mystery Diners make monthly checks on every restaurant and Drive-Thru in the country.  All aspects are assessed – food quality and presentation, atmosphere, quality and speed of service, restaurant cleanliness and so on. Staff are often commended by name, so I pass the news on to them and make sure any problems are tackled. We’re currently eighths in the UK league which is pretty good.

31We have an ongoing dialogue with McDonald’s. A field consultant visits us every two or tree weeks, and there are regular meetings with others franchisees to share ideas and experience.

34Much of my morning is spent updating computer records. Tax office queries, training records, pay roll, etc., have to be organised. Staff turnover varies but we can sometimes lose our casual workers when they go to travelling. There are McDonald’s all over the world now, so their training here really can open distant doors.

39The lunchtime rush starts around noon. On the rare occasions that we’re short staffed (e.g. flu season), I’ll muck in and serve customers (memories of my waitressing days at university!). I’ve even been known to cook fries when necessary. As with any small business, one has to be flexible but I think it’s also important to focus your energies where they are most effective. For me, this is behind the scenes admin work.

45My own lunch is a salad or chicken sandwich. By this time, my office looks like a bomb site to the untrained eye. I’ve usually divided the masses  of paperwork into piles ready to tackle them in priority order.

48I have to head off around 3 p.m. to collect my two sons from school so I generally end up taking work home. I’ll finish 38it in the kitchen, listening Glenn Miller or the Moody Blues, while also supervising the children’s homework, music practice or whatever.

52If I’m doing the end-of-month figures; I generally have to work into the early hours. Otherwise I’m in bed any time after 10 p.m. I always have three or four books on the go, Walter Scott or Jane Austen for example, and usually one non-fiction- maybe an autobiography or a political work.

56I’m glad to say Tom’s snoring was lasered away last summer, so now I can look forward to some undisturbed sleep before another busy day at the restaurant. Now I think of it, I used to have cravings for McDonald’s when I was pregnant. Itmusthavebeenapremonition!

 

Задание 12. Определите, являются ли утверждения:

а) ложными

b) истинными

 

 

1. Vanessa Stein starts to organise her day before she gets to work. B
2. In the future Vanessa will continue to work in exactly the same way as she does today. A
3. The restaurant has not changed since the Steins bought it. A
4. The majority of McDonald’s restaurants in the UK are not franchises. A
5. Vanessa’s husband did his training after having been accepted as a franchisee. B
6. Every two weeks they receive an independent evaluation of how their business is performing. B
7. Vanessa feels that she is best at working directly with customers. B
8. All of the administrative work is now done in electronic form. A
9. If she didn’t have children, she would probably stay longer at work: B

 

Задание 13. Составьте план текста (см. задание 11).

 

One day in my life

1. The fast food challenge.
2. Early morning
3. The restaurant
4. The franchise
5. A dialogue with McDonald’s.
6. The lunchtime
7. At home

 

Задание 14. Подберите определения к следующим словам.

 

1 a challenge (line 1) G		A a reservation
2 maintenance (line 11) C		b  a list of employees and the wages they are paid
3 a booking(line 18)  A		c  work involving written or printed documents
4 a report (line 18) E		d  to review and include recent changes
5 to tackle (line22) I		e  a piece of writing giving information on a particular subject
6 to update (line 26) D		f  to pay special attention
1records(line 26) H		g a difficult but exciting thing to do
8 a payroll (line 26) B		i to deal with
9to focus(line 31) F		j written documents containing information
10 paperwork (line 36) J		h about the past

 

Задание 15. Заполните следующую анкету, используя  слова из задания  14. При необходимости изменяйте форму слова.

 

1. When working with other people do you focus on that you can do best?

Yes___                              No___

2. When preparing a written REPORT do you list the different sections then make a brief summary of what will you include in each?

Yes___                              No___

3. Do you UPDATE your address book as soon as people move?

Yes___                              No___

4. Do you organize your PAPERWORK so that documents are grouped according to subjects?

Yes___                              No___

5. Do you enjoy the CHALENGE of doing new and perhaps more complicated work?

Yes___                              No___

6. Do you regularly do PAPERWORK work to make sure that equipment works efficiently?

Yes___                              No___

7. Do you keep clear MAINTANCE of the work that you have already done?

Yes___                              No___

8. Do you TACKLE the most difficult pieces of work first?

Yes___                              No___